Night and Day
by The Death of You
Summary: Ashley is a normal girl, with a normal sister, and a normal family. In a very normal way, she falls for the good-looking guy. He just happens to be everything BUT normal. Join Ashley as she struggles to make this relationship work, and to stay alive.
1. Chapter 1

"Shlee, can you please do my papers for me

" '_Shlee_, can you _please _do my papers for me?" Katherine whined at her.

"Ashley, let your sister go to her friend's house," her mother said. Ordered, more like. Behind Mrs. Hennessey's back, Ashley's younger sister stuck out her tongue and started tying up her converses.

Ashley rolled her eyes. Her mother never knew what a little ass Katherine could be. All she saw was the cute little twelve-year-old who looked to be about nine. She couldn't hear her annoying habit of She couldn't see the snobby, spoiled little brat that lay just under the skin. Sometimes that pissed Ashley off. But she was grounded, and she needed to get out of the house. Badly. Before she snapped and killed Katherine. She didn't want to end up in jail, and the idea kept getting more and more appealing.

She slung the barely-full bag over her shoulder (luckily the papers were thin that day) and headed out the door, cranking up the volume on her iPod and "accidentally" knocking Katherine down the stairs.

"Oops, did I do that?" she asked sweetly, but couldn't hear Katherine's response, whatever it was.

Well, not until Katherine yanked an earbud out of her ear, that is.

"You know the big _old_ house that was being restored? The _loner_ house?" she asked.

Ashley nodded. She knew the one. It was a good distance away from the other homes in the area, a few minutes of fast walking down a dirt road. Recently she'd seen moving trucks and vans with trailers frequenting it. Or frequenting the dirt road, at least. It kept going past the house, but she'd never bothered to follow it.

"Well, they started a subscription the other day."

Oh. So Ashley had to walk out to the house every day Katherine was gone? The normal twenty-eight papers was fine when it was raining (thought it was only drizzling at the moment, thank the Lord), but she'd add about ten minutes of walking with that house. Ten minutes more of being soaked through. Lovely.

Before she could respond, Katherine spotted her friend's car, and darted down the road, waving an arm in the air. Ashley just huffed and set out.

The dirt road to the new house was the closest to her own home, so she took that road first, knowing she'd need the five minutes of cooling off before she had to talk to anyone.

She pulled her iPod out of her pocket and attempted to watch a Dane Cook video while walking, but when she stumbled and fell (it was totally the bag's fault, it threw her off-balance), she decided that maybe that wasn't a good idea. Instead she turned on some music.

By that point her mood had already improved by ninety percent, and you could tell it from the music she listened to. Instead of listening to Linkin Park and Jack's Mannequin, she was listening to Ok Go and Motion City Soundtrack. And she was singing along. She'd have to remember to stop that before she got close to the house. She didn't want people hearing her sing. It wasn't that she couldn't sing. She just couldn't sing while she knew people were listening, with only one exception. Her best friend Mel had heard her sing many times. They had a fairly popular YouTube channel, and would frequently post videos of Ashley singing while Mel played the guitar or piano. Their favorite was Coldplay's 'Clocks'.

She rounded a bend on the road and saw the driveway. It was a long driveway, she remembered, so she let herself finish the chorus and then closed her mouth.

The house was much more beautiful than she'd remembered it being. There had been something about it before, when it was crumbling-a romantic feeling in the air, she supposed. The person who had restored it had obviously felt that too. The blacks and whites that somehow seemed harsh on any other house felt right here. And she was certain the boy reading a novel on the balcony had something to do with it.

From a distance she could see that he was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. But when she came closer, her eyes could not move from his face.

It was the most beautiful face she'd ever seen, and very extreme. Each feature was perfection. She wanted to reach out and touch his face, to see if she was really seeing him. It would be like her to imagine a boy to go along with the romantic image of the house. She was grateful she was too far to reach out to his face, as she probably would have.

As she approached, he looked up from his book and smiled at her. There was something frightening about him. Even though he seemed to radiate friendliness, some buried instinct was telling Ashley to run, and fast. She realized that he was wearing a white wifebeater, not a long-sleeved shirt-he was so pale that she hadn't been able to see the difference, but now she could.

The boy stood, and his ebony hair fell in front of his face, brushing his cheekbones. He seemed to be her age, but had a good four inches on her, at least. Ashley could imagine herself standing on her toes and wrapping her fingers in his hair as he leaned down towards her-

"Hello," he said, still smiling at her. His voice sounded...like a cashmere sweater felt. Like vanilla ice cream tasted. Like baking bread smelled. Like pure, incomparable bliss.

Ashley blinked, trying to clear her thoughts. "Um, hi."

'Um, hi'? WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? She could do SO much better! 'Um, hi...' What a disgrace.

The boy chuckled. "I think you have something for me.." he said.

Ashley frowned. Something...for him?

Right. Newspaper. Okay.

"Oh. Yeah. That." She laughed, and reached into her bag to grab a newspaper. She handed it to him, and his eyes scanned the headlines.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Ashley said, turning to go.

She felt a hand on her arm, through her sweater, and was pulled around to face the boy.

"Brandon Cullen," he said. He was close enough that she could feel his breath on her forehead. Blinking didn't clear her thoughts. "I'm Brandon Cullen," he said a bit slower, as if she hadn't understood.

But she understood well. It was the forming of her own name she was having trouble with.

"A-Ashley Hennessey. Sister of your papergirl."

"Sister of the papergirl? Well, maybe I'll see you around anyways," Brandon said, turning around and heading through the front door before she could think of an appropriate response, or any response. She stood for a minute, dazed, and then turned to leave the house in which the beautiful boy resided.

**A/N: So, how was it? Good? Bad? Should I continue? This is my first piece of fanfiction, so I don't know...anything, really. Tell me in a review if there was something you liked. PLEASE tell me in a review if there was something you didn't like, so I can fix it.**

**Thank you for reading this chapter, at least! More when I get the chance to write it.**

**-Megan**


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Katherine was surprised when Ashley offered to do her papers for her

The next day, Katherine was surprised when Ashley offered to do her papers for her.

"You're not trying to _make_ me_ give_ you something, _are _you?" she asked, suspicious of Ashley's motives.

"When have I ever done that?" Ashley asked as she curled her eyelashes.

"_All the time. _And since _when_ do you_ curl_ your_ eyelashes?"_

"Since now," Ashley said. "Now, don't you have someplace to go?" She touched up her lip gloss after saying this, and then walked out into the hall. After slinging the bag full of newspapers over her shoulder, she stared at her reflection in the porch's glass door. She adjusted her hood, pulled down on her sweater, ran her fingers through what hair was visible a couple of times, then headed out the door.

She fidgeted a lot on the way over, and prayed for a mirror the entire time. Which was a tad bit strange, because normally Ashley felt confident, and knew she looked fine without any reassurance from reflective metal. But she didn't know what she wouldn't give for a stainless steel refrigerator to check her appearance with right now...

She starting scanning the titles of the songs on her iPod, looking for something suitably happy and confidence-boosting to listen to. Ashley had just been about to choose a song when a car alarm went off.

"Seatbelt," she sang to herself. "Back seat. Trunk space." Then she pushed the button, choosing a song by The Idlers. She turned up the volume in an attempt to drown out both the car alarm and her obsession with Dane Cook. The familiar reggae-ska beat relaxed her, and she started to feel better.

When the song ended, Ashley realized that she had been walking down the dirt road very slowly. She hit 'next', picking up the pace. Soon she rounded the corner which put the Cullens' driveway in view. Her heartbeat sped up a little.

Ashley took one deep breath before starting up the long driveway. She kept her eyes down, knowing what she wanted to see, but also knowing that it probably wouldn't happen. When she finally convinced herself to look upwards, however, her wish had been fulfilled. Plus some, it seemed.

Brandon Cullen was sitting on his front porch, engaged in animated conversation with another boy and two girls. The boy was almost as painfully beautiful as Brandon, and the girls were enough to make Ashley's small remaining amount of self-confidence fly out the window. One was short, with black hair that was cropped short and spiked in every direction. The similar hair colour gave Ashley reason to hope that she was Brandon's sister, and not his girlfriend.

The other girl had brown hair, and was staring at the new boy in a way that made Ashley absolutely certain that she wouldn't have to worry about her. And that, had she preferred the boy with the auburnish hair, she would have had no chance.

As Ashley approached the four, the tiny girl stopped talking midsentence, and simply left. Brandon glared at her retreating back, and the brunette placed her hand on his arm comfortingly. His head suddenly turned to face Ashley, and he grinned again. She grinned back and looked down to reach into the bag, trying to hide her blush. She didn't have time to let it fade, though, so she was going to have to pretend it wasn't there. As she approached the porch, she noticed the trio all suck in a breath at the same time. It was kind of creepy. They didn't seem to be breathing anymore...no, their shoulders were moving up and down slightly, they were breathing. That was good. Not breathing can result in death.

"Hey," she said to the two she didn't know. Her voice wavered, she didn't feel comfortable around them. The instinct to run was back. But, because it was stupid, she ignored it. "You must be the new neighbors. I'm Ashley."

The new boy smiled. "Edward Cullen. I'm Brandon's brother." This boy's voice was not cashmere, but more velvety.

"And I'm Bella," the girl said in a voice that sounded like bells, melodic and enchanting. "Bella Cullen."

"Are you all siblings?" Ashley asked.

"Edward, Alice, Emmett and I are siblings." Brandon chimed in, his cashmere voice softer than ever. Imaginings ran untamed through her head as she turned to ogle his face.

There was something Ashley wanted to ask, but she couldn't remember it...

"And Bella is my wife," Edward said. It was kind of creepy, Ashley thought. That was what she had been trying to remember. At least they weren't incest. But... weren't they awfully young to get married?

Bella glanced subconsciously at the ring on her finger. Ashley looked as well. It was beautiful, though she didn't much like the engagement ring, which was too old-fashioned. Ashley turned to hand Brandon the paper, and saw out of the corner of her eye Edward grabbing Bella's hand to kiss the ring on her finger. Nobody else she knew did that. She decided then that old-fashioned boys were okay. But modern rings were much more gorgeous.

"Well, see you around," Ashley said.

"Goodbye," Edward said.

"See ya," Bella said with a warm smile and a wave. Ashley liked her. She seemed very nice.

"Until the next time your sister forces the paper route upon you," Brandon said, as he entered the house, with a small wave.

When he closed the door behind him, Ashley realized her mouth was hanging slightly open. Bella and Edward were both looking away, although Edward seemed to be smirking. But Ashley hadn't been spotted, so she shut her mouth and continued with the paper route absentmindedly. She ran into a couple of people, totally ignored others, and forgot to put newspapers in two mailboxes. She had no idea of which two it could be. She'd have to wait for them to call and complain, she supposed.

All day, the only thing she could think about was the fact that Brandon had implied a future meeting. **He thought he'd be seeing her again.**

This was good. Very good. She could hardly wait until tomorrow.

**A/N:**

**This chapter goes out to WolfxAngel, who not only reviewed, but ****favorited**** the story! You are officially awesome. Does anybody else here start singing 'Hellooooo! I'm a caaaaar!' when they hear a car alarm?**

**Also, is their anyone reading this who could edit my writing? They call them beta-readers on fanfiction sites, right? (I really am clueless.)**

**Next chapter should hopefully be out soon. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.**

**-Megan**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: You may want to skip the third section if you haven't read the Host yet, but still plan to read it sometime. Just letting you know.**

Ashley was miserable.

It felt like the world was conspiring against her. Like it was deliberately making every part of her body that could possibly hurt throb. Like she should just give up and throw herself off a cliff before this goddamn flu got the best of her.

All morning, she had been lying in bed, trying to sleep, but not succeeding because, along with her headache, sore throat and sinus pains, she had that all-around sick ache. And a fever, to top it off.

Her parents had even tried to send her to school that morning. Pshh. Like that would have worked. It was only after Ashley had stood up, wincing at the sudden throbbing in her head, shivering violently at the frigid air outside her soft duvet, and tried to talk, but only succeeding in a whisper, though she felt like she was yelling, that her mother had realized that Ashley was indeed too sick to go to school. Then she switched to fretting mother, asking if she should stay home from work, did Ashley need anything, did she want an Advil, NeoCitron, anything at all?

Ashley had somehow convinced her mom that she was fine-she'd just sleep with the phone on her bedside table and a garbage near her bead, just in case. She knew her mother's cell phone number, she could call if there was an emergency, and she was only going to sleep anyways. She did, however, take some flu medication, wincing as it went down her throat. The pill felt like sandpaper, scratching – no, mangling – her throat as it went down.

As per usual when she was sick, the got the lunchtime "How are you?" call from Mel. This eased her worries about catch-up work considerably, as she found out there had been an assembly that morning, so she hadn't missed any work then. This was very good, because usually Ashley's teachers seemed to have a contest going, to see which could assign the most homework per night. She hung up the phone with a smile on her face. The call had boosted Ashley's spirits, and gave her the will to stick out the sickness for the day.

--

Exactly fourteen minutes later, Ashley had given up on hope for survival again. She was tired of being sick, tired of being tired, tired of her bedroom, tired of everything, it seemed. And even though Ashley didn't even want to think about getting up, she knew a change of scenery was necessary, or she'd lose her mind. Even through the haze that being sick tended to put in her thoughts, she was going stir-crazy.

As she stood up, her head throbbed in time with her pulse. Ashley moaned. This was not fun. NOT FUN. Her balance was way off, too. She almost fell down the stairs as she headed for the living room and the sofa, pillow in hand.

Lying on the couch wasn't much better than lying on her bed. The only bonus was that her black Labrador Retriever, River (named after her love for water), climbed onto the couch and laid her head on Ashley's knees. God, that dog had Ashley wrapped around her... paw? One look from those huge brown puppy-dog eyes, and Ashley was headed for the cupboard with the dog treats. It was a miracle that the dog only weighed sixty-five pounds. Today, however, "the look" wasn't working.

"Aw, babes, don't look at me like that," Ashley complained. For some reason, she'd always called River 'babes'. It was just something she did. "I can't get up, I'm dying." As always, River seemed to understand what Ashley was saying. She tilted her head to the side as if demanding the truth. "Fine. I'm not dying. But I'm miserable. Ungh." Ashley let her head fall back onto the pillow. She felt River lay her head down on Ashley's knees again, and smiled. It was a reassuring weight. River could always make her feel good.

As content as Ashley was, she still wasn't getting to sleep. She couldn't relax enough, and was painfully aware of being unable to breathe through her nose as she usually did. So Ashley's hand snaked out from the polar fleece throw she'd pulled off the chair closest to the fireplace and grabbed her book. The Host, by Stephenie Meyer. Some aliens, violence and love triangles would distract her well. What page had she been on? Right, five hundred and seven.

--

'_I drifted into the black, and it got brighter and brighter. It wasn't black at all – it was blue. Warm vibrant, brilliant blue... I floated into it with no fear at all.'_

The tears were rolling down Ashley's face now, and her nose was running even more. River, who had moved to the loveseat, got up and walked over. She stuck her nose into Ashley's face, and made her laugh through the tears. The laughing became hysterical as River started licking her face.

"That...tickles!" She managed to squeeze out between laughs and coughs. Her throat was burning again, but she didn't care. This had been what she'd needed to cheer her up. What a depressing ending to the book. Ashley flipped a couple of pages, looking to see if there was a sequel – depressing as it had been, the book was amazing – and found another chapter. 'Remembered.'

Lovely. An epilogue that would make her cry again. But because Ashley was desperate for things to at least work out for Mel, she started reading it immediately.

--

Now Ashley's tears were tears of joy. The ending was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

She shut the book, not bothering to stop crying.

Of course, her sister had to walk in the house at that moment. Let's ruin Ashley's moment for her, it'll be fun, Ashley thought angrily.

Her sister was talking as she stepped into the house. "So, I'll just go get some scissors, and you can take your paper now.." Huh. Who was she talking to?

When he responded, Ashley gasped, which caused her to start coughing uncontrollably. She'd recognize that voice anywhere, even if she'd only heard it six times.

"Alright.. Who is that?" Brandon Cullen asked her sister. "Are you alright?" he called.

Slowly the coughing subsided, as Katherine told him how her sister was sick.

"Your sister," he said. "That would be Ashley, right?" A crazy smile spread across Ashley's face. He remembered her name.

Katherine told him that yes, Ashley was the sick sister.

"I'll drop in and say hello, if you don't mind," he said. She heard a bag drop to the floor, and footsteps coming down the hall.

"Would you mind grabbing the scissors? Katherine asked. "Second drawer down. To the left of the sink."

"No problem," the cashmere voice responded.

By this time, Ashley had realized something. She did not want him seeing her looking like this. She rubbed her eyes, ran her hands through her hair, pulled the blanket up around her shoulders so that he couldn't see the baggy shirt she was wearing, but didn't have time for anything more before he walked into the room. God, he was gorgeous.

"Hey," she said, or tried to say. She couldn't speak. "Crap," she said. Everything was coming out... more quietly then a whisper. "HEY," she tried to yell. At least that put the volume up to what was usually a whisper. "WHAT'S UP?"

Brandon laughed. "Not much. How are you feeling?"

"OKAY, I GUESS. I COULD TALK BEFORE I HAD THE COUGHING FIT." The one that you caused.

"If it gets too bad I could have my father check it out. He's a doctor, you know."

"NO-" Ashley stopped as her voice came back, raspy, but at least there. Instead of blushing at the fact that she'd yelled at Brandon like an idiot, she said "Yes! My voice!"

Then, of course, she blushed like an idiot. "Um, right. Like I was saying, I'm just under the weather. I'll probably be okay for tomorrow, or the day after."

"Well then I'll probably end up seeing you at school. Your last name is Hennessey, correct?" Correct? Who said correct? Brandon made it sound perfect.

"Yeah.." Ashley had no clue where he was going with this.

"You're in my homeroom class, as well as chemistry and English."

THREE CLASSES. THEY HAD THREE CLASSES TOGETHER! "Cool," Ashley said. She'd had no clue she was so good at hiding her emotions. Inside, she was imagining herself running around the room, jumping and screaming and dancing. Outside, though, she was fairly sure she seemed normal. Or sick. Or normally sick.

"I'll see you late, then." Brandon turned to walk towards the kitchen with one last smile in her direction.

"Bye," Ashley said. As soon as he was out the door, the crazy smile spread across her face again.

As if on cue, the phone rang. Ashley picked it up, glancing at the caller I.D. It was Mel. Ashley laughed, realizing that Melissa's nickname was the same as Melanie Stryder's. She answered the phone with a slightly more sane smile on her face.

"Mel!" she attempted to cry. The sound came out mangled.

"Ashley? Are you okay?" Mel asked, worried.

"Yes. I just can't talk. I feel at least fifty percent better." Ashley laughed.

"That's good," Mel said more calmly. "Now, guess what!"

"What?" Ashley asked. She heard the front door open and close. Brandon was gone.

"So, I'm on my way to Chem, right? And this really gorgeous guy walks up to me and ASKS ME TO SHOW HIM TO OUR CHEM CLASS!"

"Was his name... Brandon Cullen, by any chance?" Ashley asked.

"How did you know?" Mel asked.

"He lives by me. His house is on Kat's paper route. I've talked to him a couple of times. I was going to let you know yesterday, but I totally forgot to." Ashley got the crazy smile on her face again. "Actually, I was just talking to him now. He's in our English too, yes?"

"Yeah," Mel said, surprised. "Man, I can NEVER tell you anything you don't already know!" She laughed. "I'm going to have to work on that."

"You should come over this afternoon. You gave me this goddamn flu, so you won't catch it."

"Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be there," Melissa said, hanging up the phone. Ashley hung up. Somehow, between Brandon and Melissa, she didn't care about being sick anymore.


End file.
